The Greatest Thing
by muggle-iow
Summary: *Spoilers* My version of 10.6 with a happier ending. Oneshot. Harry/Ruth


I thought the ending of Spooks was very good, even though it was perhaps the saddest thing I have seen on TV, I feel the writers did a great job and I'm almost glad they didn't pander to a happy ending.

However, I figured that returning to the fanfiction world to write a happy ending for Ruth and Harry couldn't hurt!

So here it is! The first fanfiction I've written in a very long time, please review and I might try to write some more!

The story was influenced by the line from Moulin Rouge "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and be loved in return."

**The Greatest Thing**

He could barely glance at her desk, well, it wasn't her desk any more, it hadn't been for a while, but all the time she'd been working for Towers he'd still seen it as hers. He had refused to admit she'd left, even though he encouraged her to go. She deserved a normal life.

Harry crossed the grid in silence, not acknowledging the three officers talking in hushed tones, gathered around a desk, barely picking up the words "Bad people want to kill us."

He was filled with guilt. All of this was his fault, everything that had happened over the past few weeks was due to his emotional attachment to the past. She had tried to tell him, but he didn't listen. Her instinct was always right. Now a part had been ripped from all of them. Especially Harry, although he would barely admit it to himself, he felt empty, incomplete.

The empty desk threatened to break his tough exterior. He wanted nothing more than to break down then and there, but he would carry on. He had to carry on, the unknown entity saving the lives of thousands of people over and over again. Harry looked at his team again, they would all turn into the others that had gone before them, destroyed by their work. Saving others but sacrificing themselves piece by piece as another was taken away from them.

His work would help him forget, he told himself, provide a distraction from the visions of her laying in the rough grass, his hands covered in her blood. No matter how much he was falling apart inside, he would carry on.

The recent events had hit them all hard. No one wanted to be on the grid working amongst the memories, trying to work past their pain.

She had been a quiet presence there, and was missed when she left to work for Towers, although a ghostly presence remained. She was always at the end of the phone if any of them needed her, for whatever reason. Now her absence was a weight filling the room, they all tried to ignore it, to get on with their jobs, after all, there was no one else to carry on if they stopped.

The phone rang making Harry jump, but he hesitated letting it ring a few times as he prepared himself for the worst as he had been every time the phone rang the past few days. "Harry Pearce...yes, I'll be there right away."

Ending the call he stood up, with a new sense of purposefulness without pausing to collect his coat he walked onto the grid, pausing only to pass a nod to his team. Erin and Demitri exchanged a quick glance as they watched Harry navigate through the desks, his expression anxious, yet with the glimmer of hope behind his determined gaze. Demetri and Cal automatically moved around to Erin's desk as she watched Harry exit through the sliding doors.

"We need to stay here" Erin hesitated, knowing the two men wanted to follow Harry just as much as she did "Bad people want to kill us, remember" she looked up, "He'll let us know, we need to keep things running here."

Harry walked through Thames House with a strong sense of determination, he knew his driver was waiting. Harry had made sure he would always be ready. Pulling open the car door, Harry nodded to the driver, knowing he would know what to do. As he settled into the back seat his memory jumped back to three days previously.

"_Harry, we were never meant to have those things." Her eyes closed. Someone, he didn't register who, administered the adrenaline, they all held their breath as they waited for any sign of life. Nothing. He barely controlled a sob as he realised she was gone, she had left him forever without them ever being able to live a life together. He could barely breathe, his whole body felt heavy as her words echoed around his head "No" he whispered as he lent forward to kiss her._

_Placing his hand on her chest, he was suddenly filled with hope as he felt a faint heartbeat. Moving back quickly, he stared blankly at Erin. Had the adrenaline worked? Quickly feeling the pulse at her neck he sobbed once more, not caring what his team saw, yes, there was a faint beat there._

_The sound of the helicopter blades produced a spark of activity. A hand was placed on Harry's shoulder and he stood as Demitri stepped forward and Cal attended to Sascha. Everything seemed to pass in a blur as Harry stood in the middle of it. Ruth was placed on a stretcher and carried to the helicopter as Sascha was bandaged and helped back to the bunker to wait for an ambulance._

_Harry approached the helicopter but was firmly told there was no room and he would have to make his own way to the hospital. _

"_Mr Pearce?"_

_Harry jumped up as the doctor entered the waiting room, his officers remained seated but he knew they were listening intently._

"_I...I'm afraid I have some bad news" the doctor rather began, with little tact as Harry had already assumed the worse "We have operated on Miss Evershed and placed a chest-tube to help her lung heal. However, she arrested again in the helicopter, her brain has been starved of oxygen for a while." Harry waited to hear the words he had been dreading ever since she fell to the grass that evening. "Miss Evershed is in a coma. We cannot tell if there is any lasting damage until she wakes up." the doctor looked nervous "if, she wakes up" he added softly._

"_Can, can I see her?" Harry managed to choke out, determined not to loose it infront of his colleagues again. The doctor nodded and lead Harry down a sterile corridor where Ruth was lying motionless in a white room._

_Taking a deep breath Harry stepped into the room, nodding a quick thanks to the doctor. Walking slowly to the pale, almost lifeless form on the bed Harry finally allowed tears to fall. Ruth was lying there, her skin pale and sickly with various wires and machines attached to her still form, a regular bleeping, although annoying, provided a comfort, one small sound proving she was still alive._

"_I'm so sorry, Ruth. I'm so sorry" Harry cried as he took her hand, not able to say any more. _

For the past three days Harry had been preparing himself for the call. Although hope lingered in the back of his mind he had prepared himself for the worst. This job had made him a pesimist. He wanted to believe she could pull through, he wanted to believe she was strong enough, but he couldn't let himself know she would be ok. Harry knew that if she didn't wake up he couldn't carry on. The hope was driving him, no matter how small, it was there, prompting him to continue.

He'd even visited the house, the one near the seaside with the cracked green paint on the front door, the two bedrooms, one that would be his office. Harry wanted to buy it, to have it ready for when she woke up, but he couldn't bring himself to. At least this way if the worst came he wouldn't have to see the place again, the future of the house would be left to someone else, a different happy couple.

And yet, this phone call from the doctor had filled him with hope. The simple words "Mr Pearce, you might want to get here now" had said more than he could have ever dreamed. The quiet cheerfulness in the doctors voice had filled Harry with sudden shot of hope, however, he wouldn't believe she was awake until he saw her, until he finally told her he loved her.

His determined mood continued as he strode through the hospital, not waiting to be given directions, he knew where he was going, and after his constant visits over the past few days the staff were used to his silent, but strong presence.

Pausing momentarily Harry prepared himself and pushed the door open. The machines still bleeped at their steady pace, the room was still plain, but the inhabitant of the bed was different. The breathing tube was no longer there and the number of wires had halved. The inhabitant of the bed was sleeping peacefully.

Harry crossed the room silently, careful not to wake the sleeping woman. She was still pale but looked ten times more alive than she had earlier in the morning, her cheeks had a hint of colour and the dark circles under her eyes looked less sunken and ghostly.

The sleeping woman stirred towards Harry, almost as if she sensed the presence of the Head of Security. As her eyes flickered open he finally allowed himself to give into the emotions he had kept at bay for the past few days, and tears began to fall down his cheeks. "Ruth" he whispered softly, finally allowing himself to say her name.

**1 year later.**

The early morning sun shone brightly through the bedroom window accompanied by the sounds of birds chirping. Harry stirred and awoke slowly, careful not to disturb the woman sleeping next to him. Exactly a year ago she had woken up from the coma that threatened to destroy their life together before it had even begun.

As he watched his wife sleeping, Harry reflected back on the past year. The day Ruth had woken, Harry had phoned the estate agents and placed an offer on the house, and formally resigned from the Service. They were married shortly after Ruth was discharged from hospital, in a small ceremony, celebrating with their close family and friends.

It seemed like the year had passed in a dream. The front door was still covered in cracked green paint and the second bedroom had housed Harry's office for a while, but was slowly being converted into a nursery for the child they had found they were expecting five months earlier.

They had been given another chance, the life they were never meant to have was more perfect than either of them could have ever have imagined.


End file.
